The Osceola times., 1887-07-16

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Mr.. Tillett, in has haste TO elevate
the New South by degrading the
Old, forgets that most Of the repre-
sentative men of the New South, her
Senators, Congressman, Cabinet of
iicers, Governors, Judges, iurists,
leading journalists, college profess
sors, eminent divines and successful |
men of business in every line, were
born and educated under the "curse
Of slavery" There is no New South.
The term is misnomer and myth.
1t is simply a phrase costume in
which old prejudices masquerade
through modem prints, seeking to
pervert into the education of South |
ern children the conviction that their
ancestors, if not criminal, were little
more than a race of "idlers." blum
derers, blockheads, and failures. But
the present or future generations will
never find reason to be ashamed of
the brain work of the Old South.
The literature left us by Washington,
Jefferson, Madison, Monroe. Cal
houn, Stephens, and Jefferson Davis
will stand as monuments of wisdom
and models of classical lore when
.he mountains of literary lumber,
accumulated by professional book
makers, shall have crumpled into the
dust ofages. In all the departments
Of government, civil and military; i'll
law, literature and science, while
the South has boasted no great army
of writers, whose wits are the price
of bread, she has furnished the minds
productive of the grandest results to
the country and the world. When
a prolific little animal, vain of her
numerous progeny, twitted the lion
ess for nursing only one, the noble
beast replied, "Only one, out it is
lion"
1t is the character and the magni-
tude of thought, and not the abun-
dance Of thinking, that cut the mighty
and everlasting channels where flow
the living streams of mind and pro.
gress.
The naval and military cadets from
the South have had no superiors as a
class The culture and intelligence
| in the ranks of the Confederate army
were unsurpassed by that Of any of
the great armies of the world, hence
the eS alted esprit tie cOrpS which
so often rendered tie Confederate
soldiers more than equal to an odds of
three to one in the splendid columns
OF the Federal army. Where is there
an example of modern seamanship
that will compare with the daring
and brilliant cruise or Admiral
Semmes, who, with a single ship,
swept from the seas the commerce
of great nation? Who was it that
mapped the geography of the seas,
explained their secret phenomena,
blazed out, on the trackless ocean
the shortest and safest highways for
the commerce of the world, by his
"Wiud and Current Charts" and his
"Sailing Directions" saving the
United States millions of dollars
annually on outgoing tonnage alone?
Matthew +. Maurv, a Southern man
60 the core, aud by common consent
Of all nations accorded the proud
title Of "Philosepher of the seas"
Where is there parallel to Audu-
bon, the naturalist and ornithologist
of the world? Chloroform, that has
robbed the surgeons knife of all it's
terrors, was first applied by South
orn physician. The two greatest
eras in surgery far the last two cen
turies, in fact two of the greatesy in
surgical history w.,re marked by two
Southern physicians, Ephraim Me-
Dowell, of Kentucky, and j. Marion
Sims, of Alabama. In their respeo-
tive branches the surgery of the
whole enlightened world recognizes
and follows the leadership of these
famous men. Ben Hill was the only
man in America who ever made ST.
100000 as the direct product of his
brain, independent of investment or
speculation; in addition TO which he
gave fifteen of his best years 10 act
i've public service. The only ap-
proxination to- his best years was
another Southern lawyer, Judah L.
Benjamin, who went 10 England
after the meridian of life and became
the leading juri.t in that land of
great lawyers, having on his docket.
at one time, half the appeal cases in
the kingdom. Does this order of
men spring from a race OF "idlers,"
whose aspirations and energies have
been emasculat.d by the "curse nf
slavery But memory wearies with
enumeration, and we only suggest
that Southern parents should look to
the education of their boys aud act
with due circumspection when the
friends of education come TO US
"bearing gifts in the shape of endow-
ments tor Southern univelsities,
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